Philosophy 101:
Practice With Fallacies
Each of the following contains one of the fallacies discussed in class, or no fallacy. The answers are at the end of this page.
1. Government ownership of utilities is dangerous because it is socialistic and anything socialistic is dangerous.
2. "Consider this sequence: Do-gooders and activists want to stop teens from smoking. Good! Government puts $1.50 extra tax on cigarettes. [...] Black-market and bootlegging develops to circumvent high tax. Organized crime takes over distribution of black market tobacco products. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and FBI try to control organized crime. Unsuccessful. More taxes to fund ATF and FBI. [...] Need more courts and prisons. Congress screams for more taxes. [...] Program a total failure. Gee, that reminds me of the Prohibition era 1917-1933. Doesn't Congress ever learn? Do we have to go through all that again, except for it being tobacco instead of alcohol?" - letter to editor, Fresno Bee, May 4, 1998
3. President Bush's spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, when asked what he thought about an investigation of charges that the 1980 Reagan campaign made a deal with Iran to delay the release of American hostages until after the Presidential election: "There's no reason to investigate something that never happened."
4. "Either President Clinton and his cronies must go, or our country will. There are no other options." - letter to the editor, Time, October 19, 1998.
5. "The last election saw the Democrats doing better than the Republicans. The Democrats, led by President Clinton, is [sic] on record supporting abortion, same-sex marriages, homosexuality, lying under oath and all kinds of perverted sexual acts - and yet this ... nation voted to give this party more power." - letter to the editor, Daily Iberian, Nov. 12, 1998.
6. "Myth: Science is a reliable guide for us. In fact, if you look at the history of science, you don't see the history of an infallible learning method slowly but surely widening our understanding of the universe. Science is an excellent instrument for fact-finding, but one that has been wrong about fundamental things at every point in its history. Theories of spontaneous generation seemed entirely reasonable at the dawn of science. Paul Ehrlich's theories expecting mass famine due to overpopulation seemed plausible at the beginning of the 1970s. What theories today will prove just as false? Scientific knowledge at any stage of its history is merely tentative, and new discoveries are continually refining or discarding previous theories." - Editorial, "Six Myths of Atheism", National Catholic Register, Nov. 18, 2007, vol. 83, no. 45, p. 8
7. "The only 'choice' in an abortion is between a dead baby or a live baby." - "She's A Child, Not A 'Choice'", published by the Human Life Alliance of Minnesota Education Fund, Inc., p. 2
8. "I heard a fundamentalist preacher on TV say that the theory of evolution is false. So, it must be false."
9. "Marriage has been between a man and a woman throughout our nation's history, so that's the way it ought to stay."
10. "But [Samuel] Johnson was dead right in insisting - as did Plato and Rousseau - that what we encounter in literature and as entertainment has a strong effect on us, not just on our feelings and imagination but also on our behavior." - Roger Shattuck, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1999, p. 76.
11. In response to the question of whether a woman who was caught in the act of adultery should be stoned to death for her sin, as Moses stated in the Old Testament, Jesus states: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." - Bible, King James Trans., John 8:7.
12. The introduction of legalized gay marriages will lead inexorably to polygamy and other alternatives to one-man, one-woman unions. [...] Why will gay marriage set the table for polygamy? Because there is no place to stop once that Rubicon has been crossed. Historically, the definition of marriage has rested on a bedrock of tradition, legal precedent, theology and the overwhelming support of the people. [...]Given that unstable legal climate, it is certain that some self-possessed judge, somewhere, will soon rule that three men and one woman can marry. Or five and two, or four and four. Who will be able to deny them that right? The guarantee is implied, we will be told, by the Constitution. Those who disagree will continue to be seen as hate-mongers and bigots. (Indeed, those charges are already being leveled against those of us who espouse biblical values!) How about group marriage, or marriage between relatives, or marriage between adults and children? How about marriage between a man and his donkey? Anything allegedly linked to "civil rights" will be doable. The legal underpinnings for marriage will have been destroyed. - "Gay Marriage: Why Would It Affect Me?", a synopsis of the new book by Dr. James Dobson, Marriage Under Fire, http://www.nogaymarriage.com/tenarguments.asp
13. "'Please your Majesty,' said the Knave, 'I didn't write it, and they can't prove I did: There's no name signed at the end.'
14. "The ability of a woman to have control of her body is critical to civil rights. Take away her reproductive choice and you step onto a slippery slope. If the government can force a woman to continue a pregnancy, what about forcing a woman to use contraception or undergo sterilization?" - Ten Arguments For and Against Abortion
'If you didn't sign it,' said the King, 'that only makes the matter worse. You must have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your name like an honest man.'" - Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
15. “Just last week I read about a girl who was dying of cancer. Her whole family went to church and prayed for her, and she was cured. That only proves the power of prayer!"
16. “Public schools had prayer for nearly 200 years before the Supreme Court ruled that state-mandated class prayers were unconstitutional. The fact that prayer was practiced for nearly 200 years establishes it by precedent as a valid and beneficial practice in our schools.” – 10 Reasons for School Prayer
17. “It seems Mitt Romney is whining about people feeling “entitled.” He obviously feels entitled to the wealth created by people who actually work for a living. Not only that, but he feels entitled to a lower tax rate than those same people.” – letter to the editor
18. 'So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research. ... Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. ... The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening.''
—Glenn Beck on his radio show, March 9, 2009
19. Myth: Religion has led to violent intolerance. Undoubtedly, far too many religious people have been violent and intolerant. But if you look at the facts about such notorious incidents as the Inquisition and the witch hunts...you'll find that the crimes of the Church have been greatly exaggerated. Meanwhile, atheist communists in the 20th century killed more people that the Church was ever even accused of killing." ." - Editorial, "Six Myths of Atheism", National Catholic Register, Nov. 18, 2007, vol. 83, no. 45, p. 8
20. "Literacy rates have steadily declined since the advent of television. Clearly television viewing impedes learning."
ANSWERS:
1. Begging the Question
2. Slippery Slope
3. Begging the Question
4. False Dilemma
5. Straw Man
6. Straw Man
7. False Dilemma
8. Fallacious Appeal to Authority
9. Appeal to Tradition
10. Fallacious Appeal to Authority
11. Tu Quoque
12. Slippery Slope (the passage mentions tradition, but does not appeal to it as a reason, so it's not an appeal to tradition fallacy).
13. Begging the Question
14. Slippery Slope
15. Post Hoc Fallacy
16. Appeal to Tradition
17. Tu Quoque
18. Slippery Slope
19. Tu Quoque
20. Post Hoc Fallacy
